And yet, the president also wants to keep a Democrat in Alaska to help hold onto control of the Senate.
Although many Republicans are pessimistic about the Party's chances of holding onto control of the House of Representatives, they are fighting hard to retain control of the Senate, where they have a majority of just two seats.
While their remarks seemed to dash Republican hopes that they could hold onto control of the Senate, which they had had for four decades, the question of who would lead the Senate Democrats remained in doubt.
It's been obvious for a while now that President Obama was going to be a net negative for Democrats trying to hold onto control of the Senate on Nov. 4.
Instead, the White House and congressional Republicans are scrambling — after Mr. Trump's apparently off-the-cuff declarations — to lay the tracks for another tax cut if Republicans hold onto control of both the House and the Senate in November.
But while Republican challengers have already picked up key Senate seats in Florida and Kentucky, Mr. Blumenthal's victory, in a race where Republicans were hoping to poach a seat, underscored expectations that the Democrats would hold onto control of the Senate.
So long as Mr. Cullen remains a Democrat – even if he does not caucus with Democrats – it appears that the Democrats will formally hold onto control of the Senate.
If the ruling Liberal Democrats hold onto control of the lower house, as many political analysts predict, the parliamentary deadlock could continue for at least five years, until upper house elections give the ruling party a chance to retake the upper chamber.
Alibaba had originally planned to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but reportedly decided not to because the HKSE's rules prohibit dual classes of stock and other corporate structures that would make it easier for minority shareholders to hold onto control of a company.
Republicans are expected to hold onto control of the House of Representatives, per an early projection by NBC News.
